FUX, JOHANN JOSEPH (166o-1741), Austrian musician, was born at Hirtenfeld, Styria. In 1696 he was organist at one of the principal churches of Vienna, and in 1698 was appointed by the emperor Leopold I. as his "imperial court-composer," with a salary of about £6 a month. At the court of Leopold and of his successors Joseph I. and Charles VI., Fux remained for the rest of his life. To his various court dignities that of organist at St. Stephen's cathedral was added in 1704. He married the daughter of the Government secretary Schnitzbaum. Fux died at Vienna on Feb. 13, His life, although passed in the great world, was uneventful, and his only troubles arose from the intrigues of his Italian rivals at court. The numerous operas which Fux wrote do not differ essentially from the style of the Italian opera seria of the time. Of greater importance are his sacred compo sitions, psalms, motets, oratorios and masses, amongst the latter the celebrated Missa Canonica which is written in canon through out. As a contrapuntist and musical scholar generally, Fux was unsurpassed by any of his contemporaries, and his great theoreti cal work, the Gradus ad Parnassum (Vienna 1715) , written in Latin, long remained by far the most thorough treatment of counterpoint and its various developments, and was translated into most European languages during the 18th century.
See Ludwig von K6chel, J. J. Fux, Hofcompositor and Hofkapell meister der Kaiser Leopold 1., Joseph I. and Karl VI. von 1698 bis 1740 (1872). This is based on minute original research and contains a complete catalogue of the composer's numerous works.